Graubünden At 500: A Look Back At Early Modern Democracy

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Canton Graubünden in eastern Switzerland is celebrating its 500th birthday this year. History professor Randolph Head sheds light on the evolution of democracy in the pioneering canton and explains how democracy used to work without the concept of equality.

• More from this author
• German Department

• Deutsch de 500 Jahre Graubünden:“Man hat Demokratie benutzt, um Macht über Andere auszuüben” Original Read more: 500 Jahre Graubünden:“Man hat Demokratie benutzt, um Macht über Andere auszuüben”
• Français fr Les Grisons d'il y a 500 ans, une démocratie sans égalité Read more: Les Grisons d'il y a 500 ans, une démocratie sans égalité
• Italiano it 500 anni di Grigioni:“La democrazia della prima età moderna non era egualitaria” Read more: 500 anni di Grigioni:“La democrazia della prima età moderna non era egualitaria”
• Español es Los Grisones cumplen 500 años de historia:“La democracia se utilizó para ejercer poder sobre otros” Read more: Los Grisones cumplen 500 años de historia:“La democracia se utilizó para ejercer poder sobre otros”
• Português pt 500 anos do cantão dos Grisões:“No início da democracia havia muita desigualdade” Read more: 500 anos do cantão dos Grisões:“No início da democracia havia muita desigualdade”
• 日本語 ja グラウビュンデン誕生500年「民主主義は他者への権力行使に利用された」 Read more: グラウビュンデン誕生500年「民主主義は他者への権力行使に利用された」
• 中文 zh 500年格劳宾登州:民主曾是向他人施加威力的工具 Read more: 500年格劳宾登州:民主曾是向他人施加威力的工具
• Русский ru ((Средневековая демократия не предполагала всеобщего равенства)) Read more: ((Средневековая демократия не предполагала всеобщего равенства))

Randolph Head teaches European History at the University of California, Riverside, and specialises in the history of Switzerland. In his dissertation, he wrote the first modern history of early modern democracy in Graubünden spanning from the 15th to the 17th century.

SWI swissinfo: Graubünden is marking its 500th anniversary this year. What do you think is important for the people of the canton to remember?

Randolph Head: In our modern world of sovereign states we want to celebrate their origins. For example, the establishment of canton Graubünden as a unified entity and the Republic of Three Leagues dates back to 1524. Prior to that, several attempts were made to unite the communities in the region by signing various agreements and forming alliances, but they all failed to find a common denominator. [With the 1524 treaty] Graubünden was one of the first regions to achieve unification, and it was not until the 19th century that it joined the Swiss Confederation. The alliance survived the Reformation and the uprisings of the 17th century, albeit barely. This was pretty special.

SWI: How did a professor from California write the first modern history of Graubünden's early democracy?

R.H.: When I was a child, I used to visit my grandmother in Bad Ragaz in canton St Gallen from where I could see the mountains of Graubünden. They always looked very dramatic from down there. The quirky names of the Graubünden villages such as Trins and Truns also fascinated me. When I decided to study history at the age of 28, I was more interested in Chinese history. But as my professors seemed to think I was too old to learn Chinese, I thought:“Oh well, my mother is Swiss, and I speak German.”

In 1524 the Republic of the Three Leagues was formed which unified three separate alliances known as the League of God's House, the League of the Ten Jurisdictions and the Grey League.

Graubünden is Switzerland's largest canton by geographical size and lies in the southeast of the country. It is the only trilingual canton (German, Romansch and Italian).

Before becoming a canton in 1803, the Three Leagues had various interactions with the Swiss Confederation but were not formally part of it.

One day, I was looking for names of cantons in the Houghton Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and found names like Aargau, Zurich and so on. When I came across Graubünden, I stumbled upon a propaganda pamphlet from 1618. It was the attempt by some clergymen to justify the actions of the criminal court of Thusis. It was one of the many notorious criminal courts in Graubünden that were established during the religious conflicts and were fuelled by the big powers at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. The first paragraph of the pamphlet read:“The form of our regiment is democratic.”

SWI: This is very clear terminology.

R.H.: Yes, and very unexpected in 1618! It would be a bit like Washington stating in 1955 that the form of the US government was communist. Back then, the term“democratic” was considered an insult. If you wanted to slander an enemy of the ruler, you would call them a democrat. In England, there was an array of books railing against alleged democrats such as the Presbyterians who demanded self-determination in church, or the Jesuits.

Aristocrats in England also regarded the Swiss as democrats: over in Switzerland they said they saw the cancer that self-determination would lead to.

SWI: What is democracy as we understand it today?

R.H.: I have been thinking about this quite a lot recently. Today, there are definitely more antidemocratic views in politics than when I was researching Graubünden. The first thing I realised back then was that democratic systems and conditions can be entirely different in different societies. Graubünden was an early modern democracy, not a modern democracy. Today's democracies are, at least in theory, based on universal human rights. However, the expression“all men are created equal” from the American Declaration of Independence did not exist in the early modern era. In early modern politics, even in democracies, the principle of human equality did not exist. It was rather the opposite that prevailed, namely the principle that people are unequal.

This content was published on Mar 6, 2024 Switzerland and the United States were once known as“sister republics”. A former ambassador to Switzerland recently evoked the idea again. How have the two states shaped and influenced each other?

MENAFN26042024000210011054ID1108144195

Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.